Objectives

Materials

Lesson Directions

Step 1. Ask students to identify places in the United States that they have visited or heard about that sound interesting or exciting. List the places on the board and locate some of them on your class map.

Step 2. Encourage students to describe the places on the list and explain why they chose them.

Step 3. Next, ask students about places they have visited on class field trips and describe what they liked about these trips.

Step 4. Distribute the activity sheet and read the directions to the class. Each student will choose a place in the United States that he or she would like to visit on a class field trip and write a letter to you with the suggestion. Remind students that they can select any U.S. destination they want.

Step 5. Tell students to include exciting descriptions and details in their letters about the place they want to visit. Their goal is to convince you that the class should go there.

Step 6. Review how to start and close a letter.

Step 7. Have students share their final letters. For additional writing fun, take a class vote on the field trip locations. Select the top five and have students work in teams to write adventure stories that take place in one of these locations. This is also a great charting opportunity. Create a chart to represent the options presented, organizing them by state, type of place, etc.